|
|
|
Born
on August 13, 1926, on his family's sugar plantation near
Biran, Oriente province,
Cuba. His father, originally an immigrant laborer from Galicia,
Spain, became owner of a 23,000-acre plantation. As a boy,
Castro worked in the family's sugar cane fields and, at 6-years-old,
convinced his parents to send him to school. He attended two
Jesuit institutions, the Colegio Lasalle and the Colegio Dolores,
both in Santiago.
In 1942 he entered the Colegio Belen, a Jesuit preparatory
school in Havana. He was voted the school's best athlete in
1944.
In
1945 Castro attended the University of Havana's Faculty of
Law, and having earned a law degree, went into practice in
1950 in Havana
with two partners.
|
| As
a lawyer he devoted himself to helping the poor. Castro intended
to campaign for a parliamentary seat in the election of 1952
but General Fulgencio Batista
overthrew the government of President Carlos Prio Socarras in
a coup d'etat and canceled the election. Castro went to court
and charged the dictator with violating the constitution. The
court rejected Castro's petition. With no legal recourse left,
Castro organized an armed attack by 165 men on the Moncada Barracks
in Oriente province on July 26, 1953. That attack and the one
on Bayamo garrison
failed completely. Half the attackers were killed; Castro and
his brother Raul were taken prisoner. They were released in
a general amnesty on May 15, 1955. Castro tried unsuccessfully
to oppose the military dictatorship by peaceful means.
|
|
He
then went to Mexico and organized Cuban exiles
into another fighting force called the 26th of July Revolutionary
Movement. |
The
group of 82 men launched an attack on the north coast of Oriente
province on December 2, 1953. Again, the attempt met defeat; only
12 of the original attackers survived. Nevertheless, the 12 retreated
to the Sierra Maestra mountains and from their mountain stronghold
waged continuous guerrilla warfare against the Batista government.
His
movement grew to 800 men, and scored victory after victory. A defeated
Batista fled the country
on New Year's Day 1959, and Castro's force made a victorious entry
into Havana.
The
United States recognized the new government on January 7, 1959.
Castro assumed the position of premier in February. Soon, however,
friction occurred between Castro and the United States when the
new Cuban government began expropriating American-owned properties
for inadequate compensation. In February 1960, Cuba became friendly
with the USSR, and made an agreement to buy Russian oil. After Cuba
had seized nearly all U.S.-owned properties in Cuba and made further
agreements with other communist governments, the United States broke
diplomatic relations with the Castro government. Cuba and the United
States were brought into confrontation on two occasions soon after
Castro had taken power.
The
United States made an unsuccessful attempt to destabilize the Castro
government. On April 17, 1961, a force of 1,300 Cuban exiles, supported
by the CIA, made an unsuccessful attempt to invade Cuba at a southern
coastal area called the Bay of
Pigs. The assumption was that the invasion would inspire
the Cuban population to rise up and overthrow Castro. It was a U.S.
miscalculation; the Cuban population supported him.
In
October, 1962 the so-called Cuban
Missile Crisis occurred when the U.S. government discovered
the Soviet Union was setting up long-range ballistic missiles in
Cuba. These were perceived by the United States as a threat. President
Kennedy instituted a naval blockade of Cuba that lasted until Khrushchev
agreed to remove the missiles. Thereafter, U.S.-Cuban relations
remained mutually hostile. Castro became a committed Marxist-Leninist
who nationalized industry, confiscated property owned by non-Cubans,
collectivized agriculture, and enacted policies to benefit laborers
and peasants. Many of the middle class fled the country, some establishing
a large, active anti-Castro community in Miami, Florida.
Castro
has supported a number of other revolutionary movements in Latin
America and Africa. Cuba became increasingly dependent on the USSR,
and the Soviet Union's collapse in 1990 has brought economic hardship
to Cuba. The problem of Cuban
refugees landing on U.S. shores has recently brought the
Cuban and U.S. governments together in negotiations. Conversely,
tensions were heightened when Cuban fighters shot down two unarmed,
U.S.-registered aircraft piloted by an anti-Castro relief organization
engaged in rescuing Cuban refugees.
February
2008
Castro
steps down as Cuban leader
Cuba's
ailing leader Fidel Castro has announced he will not accept another
term as president, ending the communist revolutionary's 49 years
in power.
The
81-year-old handed over power temporarily to his brother Raul in
July 2006 when he underwent surgery and has not been seen in public
since then.
President
George W Bush said the US was ready to help the "people of
Cuba realise the blessings of liberty".
A senior
US state department official, John Negroponte, added that the 1962
embargo would probably not be lifted "any time soon".
The
European Union said it hoped to relaunch ties with Cuba that were
almost completely frozen under Mr Castro, while China described
Mr Castro as an old friend and said it would maintain co-operation
with Cuba.
Mr
Castro has ruled Cuba since leading a revolution in 1959.
The
BBC's Michael Voss reports from Havana that most Cubans will be
saddened by news of their leader's retirement, but many hope the
political transition will bring economic improvements.
Soldiering
on
Mr
Castro made his announcement in a letter published on the website
of the Cuban Communist Party's newspaper Granma in the middle of
the night, Cuban time.
He
said he would not accept another five-year term as president when
the National Assembly met on Sunday.
"It
would betray my conscience to take up a responsibility that requires
mobility and total devotion, that I am not in a physical condition
to offer," he wrote.
Mr
Castro said he had not stepped down after undergoing emergency intestinal
surgery in 2006 because he had had a duty to the Cuban people to
prepare them for his absence.
But
retirement, he added, would not stop him from carrying "on
fighting like a soldier of ideas", and he promised to continue
writing essays entitled Reflections of Comrade Fidel.
"I
will be one more weapon in the arsenal that you can count on,"
he said.
Sources:
|
